Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Studies on True Morels (Morchella) from North Kashmir, India


Affiliations
1 Section of Plant Pathology, Mycology, and Microbiology, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 190 006, India
2 Department of Botany, Government Degree College, Sopore 193 201, India
 

Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) India, harbours a rich diversity of mushrooms, but sporadic work has been carried out till date to explore the morel mushroom diversity. Besides, only a few morel species have been identified based on classical taxonomic studies, and taxonomic confusion exists regarding the differentiation and classification of morel mushrooms. Keeping this in mind, the present research aimed to analyse the geographical distribution and taxonomic revision of true morels from North Kashmir using modern phylogenetic tree analysis along with classical phenetic approaches. In this study, 11 collections of true morels, identified as Morchella esculenta, Morchella crassipes, Morchella vulgaris, Morchella tridentina, Morchella elata and Morchella kaibabensis, were found widely distributed in 16 sampling study sites. The true morels were found to be extensively distributed in the Kupwara district, followed by Baramulla, but were less common in the Bandipora district, J&K. To the best of our knowledge, the documented species M. vulgaris, M. tridentina and M. kaibabensis have not been recorded earlier from the study area.

Keywords

Geographical Distribution, Morels, Mushroom Flora, Phenetic Approaches, Phylogenetic Analysis, Taxonomic Revision.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Bhunjun, C. S. et al., The numbers of fungi: are the most speciose genera truly diverse. Fungal Divers., 2022, 114, 387–462.

  • Hawksworth, D. L. and Lucking, R., Fungal diversity revisited: 2.2 to 3.8 million species. Microbiol. Spectr., 2017, 5(4), 5–4.

  • Priyamvada, H., Akila, M., Singh, R. K., Ravikrishna, R., Verma, R. S., Philip, L. and Gunthe, S. S., Terrestrial macrofungal diversity from the tropical dry evergreen biome of southern India and its potential role in aerobiology. PLoS ONE, 2017, 12(1), 0169333.

  • Watling, R. and Abrahim, S. P., Ectomycorrhizal fungi of Kashmir forests. Mycorrhiza, 1992, 2, 81–87.

  • Sharma, Y. P., Hashmi, S. A. J., Sharma, R., Kumar, S. and Manhas, R. K., Macrofungal diversity and distribution in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Curr. Sci., 2022, 122(12), 1415–1425.

  • Pala, S. A., Wani, A. H., Boda, R. H. and Mir, R. A., Three hitherto unreported macrofungi from Kashmir Himalaya. Pak. J. Bot., 2012, 44(6), 2111–2115.

  • Malik, A. R., Wani, A. H., Ganaie, B. A., Bhat, Z. A. and Parveen, S., Hitherto unreported species of ascomycetous macrofungi of Kashmir Himalaya. IJASR, 2018, 7(4), 2145–2155.

  • Verma, K., Hashmi, S. A. J., Atri, N. S. and Sharma, Y. P., A checklist of agaricoid russulaceous mushroom from Jammu and Kashmir, India. Kavaka, 2019, 53, 42–47.

  • Wani, A. H., Pala, S. A. and Boda, R. H., Fungal diversity in the Kashmir Himalaya. In Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation (eds Dar, G. H. and Kharoo, A. A.), Springer Nature, Singapore, 2020, pp. 319–341.

  • Talie, M. D., Wani, A. H., Malik, W. S. and Bhat, M. Y., A new species of Rhizopogon from Kashmir Valley, India. Kavaka, 2020, 55, 128–133.

  • Talie, M. D., War, J. M., Wani, A. H., Bhat, M. Y. and Sharm, S., Diversity of genus Helvella (Ascomycota: Pezizales: Helvellaceae) from northern Kashmir, India. J. Mycol. Plant Pathol., 2021, 51(3), 265–271.

  • Du, X. H., Zhao, Q. and Yang, Z. L., A review on research advances, issues, and perspectives of morels. Mycology, 2015, 6, 78–85.

  • Phanpadith, P., Yu, Z. and Li, T., Retracted article: high diversity of Morchella and a novel lineage of the esculenta clade from the North Qinling Mountains revealed by GCPSR-based study. Sci. Rep., 2019, 9, 1–10.

  • Hawksworth, D. L., In Biodiversity: Measurement and Estimation (Vol. 345), Springer Science and Business Media, 1995.

  • Kirk, P. M., Cannon, P. F., Minter, D. W. and Stalpers, J. A., Dictionary of the Fungi, CABI, Wallingford, UK, 2008, p. 599.

  • Weber, N. S., A Morel Hunter’s Companion, Two Peninsula Press, Michigan, USA, 1988.

  • Waraitch, K. S., The genus Morchella in India. Kavaka, 1976, 4, 69–76.

  • Kanwal, H. K., Acharya, K., Golla, R. and Reddy, M. S., Molecular characterization of Morchella species from the Western Himalayan region of India. Curr. Microbiol., 2010, 62(4), 1245–1252.

  • Kumar, S. and Sharma, Y. P., Diversity of wild mushrooms from Jammu and Kashmir (India). In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Mushroom Biology and Mushroom Products, Arcahon, France, 2011, pp. 568–577.

  • Kumar, S. and Sharma, Y. P., Ethnomycological study of wild mushrooms of Jammu and Kashmir. NBU J. Plant Sci., 2013, 7(1), 77–87.

  • Kotwal, M., Kumar, S. and Sharma, Y. P., Morchellaceae from Jammu region of Northwest Himalaya. Mushroom Res., 2014, 23, 15–25.

  • Dorjey, K., Kumar, S. and Sharma, Y. P., High altitude morels from Ladakh Trans-Himalaya (J&K), India. J. Non-Timber For. Prod., 2019, 26(3), 123–129.

  • Watling, R. and Gregory, N. M., Larger fungi from Kashmir. Nova Hedwigia, 1980, 32, 494–564.

  • Wani, A. H., Pala, S. A., Boda, R. H. and Mir, R. A., Morels in southern Kashmir Himalaya. Indian J. Mycol. Plant Pathol., 2010, 40, 440–446.

  • Wani, A. H., Boda, R. H. and Pala, S. A., Two new records of mushrooms from Kashmir Valley. Mycopathologia, 2015, 13(1), 21–23.

  • Atri, N. S., Kaur, A. and Kaur, H., Wild mushrooms – collection and identification. In Frontier in Mushroom Biotechnology (eds Rai, R. D., Upadhyay, R. C. and Sharma, S. R.), National Research Center for Mushrooms, Solan, 2005, pp. 9–26.

  • Loizides, M., Bellanger, J. M., Clowez, P., Richard, F. and Moreau, P. A., Combined phylogenetic and morphological studies of true morels (Pezizales, Ascomycota) in Cyprus reveal significant diversity, including Morchellaarbutiphila and M. disparilis spp. nov. Mycol. Prog., 2016, 15(4), 39–67.

  • Richard, F., Bellanger, J. M., Clowez, P., Hansen, K., O’Donnell, K., Urban, A. and Moreau, P. A., True morels (Morchella, Pezizales) of Europe and North America: evolutionary relationships inferred from multilocus data and a unified taxonomy. Mycologia, 2014, 107(2), 359–382.

  • White, T. J., Bruns, T., Lee, S. J. W. T. and Taylor, J., Amplification and direct sequencing of fungal ribosomal RNA genes for phylogenetics. In PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications, 1990, vol. 18, pp. 315–322.

  • Kumar, S., Stecher, G., Li, M., Knyaz, C. and Tamura, K., MEGA X: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis across computing platforms. Mol. Biol. Evol., 2018, 35, 1547–1549.

  • Tamura, K. and Nei, M., Estimation of the number of nucleotide substitutions in the control region of mitochondrial DNA in humans and chimpanzees. Mol. Biol. Evol., 1993, 10(3), 512–526.

  • Felsenstein, J., Confidence limits on phylogenies: an approach using the bootstrap. Evolution, 1985, 39, 783–791.

  • O’Donnell, K., Rooney, A. P., Mills, G. L., Kuo, M., Weber, N. S. and Rehner, S. A., Phylogeny and historical biogeography of true morels (Morchella) reveals an early Cretaceous origin and high continental endemism and provincialism in the Holarctic. Fungal Genet. Biol., 2011, 48(3), 252–265.

  • Kuo, M. et al., Taxonomic revision of true morels (Morchella) in Canada and the United States. Mycologia, 2012, 104(5), 1159–1177.

  • Stefani, O. P. F., Sokolski, S., Wurtz, T., Piche, Y., Hamelin, R., Fortin, A. and Berube, J. A., Morchella tomentosa: a unique below-ground structure and a new clade of morels. Mycologia, 2010, 102, 1082–1088.

  • Du, X. H. et al., How well do ITS rDNA sequences differentiate species of true morels (Morchella). Mycologia, 2012, 104(6), 1351–1368.

  • Taskin, H., Dogan, H. H., Buyukalaca, S., Clowez, P., Moreau, P. A. and O’Donnell, K., Four new morel (Morchella) species in the elata subclade (M. sect. Distantes) from Turkey. Mycotaxon, 2016, 131(2), 467–482.

  • Baroni, T. J., Beug, M. W., Cantrell, S. A., Clements, T. A., Iturriaga, T., Laessoe, T. and O’Donnell, K., Four new species of Morchella from the Americas. Mycologia, 2018, 110(6), 1205–1221.

  • Ali, S., Imran, A., Fiaz, M., Khalid, A. N. and Khan, S. M., Molecular identification of true morels (Morchella spp.) from the Hindu Kush temperate forests leads to three new records from Pakistan. Gene Rep., 2021, 23, 101–125.


Abstract Views: 313

PDF Views: 132




  • Studies on True Morels (Morchella) from North Kashmir, India

Abstract Views: 313  |  PDF Views: 132

Authors

Abdul Hamid Wani
Section of Plant Pathology, Mycology, and Microbiology, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 190 006, India
Mehrajud Din Talie
Section of Plant Pathology, Mycology, and Microbiology, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 190 006, India
Asif Hamid Dar
Section of Plant Pathology, Mycology, and Microbiology, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 190 006, India
Pallaki Shrikhandia
Section of Plant Pathology, Mycology, and Microbiology, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 190 006, India
Mohd Yaqub Bhat
Section of Plant Pathology, Mycology, and Microbiology, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 190 006, India
Tariq Ahmad Wani
Department of Botany, Government Degree College, Sopore 193 201, India

Abstract


Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) India, harbours a rich diversity of mushrooms, but sporadic work has been carried out till date to explore the morel mushroom diversity. Besides, only a few morel species have been identified based on classical taxonomic studies, and taxonomic confusion exists regarding the differentiation and classification of morel mushrooms. Keeping this in mind, the present research aimed to analyse the geographical distribution and taxonomic revision of true morels from North Kashmir using modern phylogenetic tree analysis along with classical phenetic approaches. In this study, 11 collections of true morels, identified as Morchella esculenta, Morchella crassipes, Morchella vulgaris, Morchella tridentina, Morchella elata and Morchella kaibabensis, were found widely distributed in 16 sampling study sites. The true morels were found to be extensively distributed in the Kupwara district, followed by Baramulla, but were less common in the Bandipora district, J&K. To the best of our knowledge, the documented species M. vulgaris, M. tridentina and M. kaibabensis have not been recorded earlier from the study area.

Keywords


Geographical Distribution, Morels, Mushroom Flora, Phenetic Approaches, Phylogenetic Analysis, Taxonomic Revision.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv124%2Fi5%2F607-616